These brushes may have been reviewed a hundred times already, but I figured it couldn't hurt to do a review especially for those new to reading blogs/reviews, interested in trying Real Techniques out for themselves, or for up and coming makeup addicts on a budget that so desperately needs a few good tools of the trade. I bought these brushes off iHerb, saving myself more than half of what I would have spent in store at Priceline (damn the markups) and I also used most of my rewards and loyalty credits to pay for them, so they ended up being practically free except for the shipping cost.

I must say that I really, really like these brushes. They perform exactly how I expected them to, and I like them much more than the RT Bold Metals brushes that I have in my collection. Where the Bold Metals ones are heavier and luxurious, their brushes are not designed for practicality or general multitasking uses, whereas the more affordable range by RT suits a broader variety of tasks. For example, my BM angled powder brush can only be used for powdering the face, as it is useless at other stuff. The Tapered Blush brush, on the other hand, is too small for me to comfortably use as a blush brush without being concerned about uneven patches of colour, so I only ever really use it to apply highlight.

In light of Nile DiMarco's amazing victory on Dancing With The Stars the other night, proving that the deaf can do anything, I could not see a more fitting time to tell you all something important about myself. I didn't announce this on the blog or on any of my social media accounts before because I wanted a chance to show you all my true self before you guys saw my disability.

I think a little bit of clarification is in order about my "Less Than 100% Cruelty-Free" statement. In my personal opinion, any company that performs testing on animals or sell products in China where they're legally required to test on animals, they are not cruelty-free. However, if a 'cruelty-free' brand is owned by a parent company that does test on animals in some way, shape or form, they are less than 100% cruelty-free. I prefer to stick with products that I have the absolute confidence in, in regards to their ethics and testing policies.

A few months ago I posted a wishlist containing a number of products that I would love to get. Since then I've made a few alterations, as well as omitted a couple of things. For example, I removed the Too Faced Peanut Butter and Jelly Eye Shadow Palette for obvious reasons (in case you've been living under a rock and haven't been keeping up to date on my blog, here's the post on the palette).

Gasp! I actually did the unthinkable! I actually bought something for myself from Mecca! As someone that's always lived on a budget and barely ever treat myself to something as expensive as an eyeshadow palette from Too Faced. In fact, I've always settled for less, paying as little as I could on clothes, makeup, skincare and so on. The only thing I would let myself go is food and mineral specimens, even though I haven't bought a specimen since last September. That's saying something when week after week, something new would go into my cabinet to sit on the shelves next to my other rhodochrosites, dioptases, wulfenites and pyromorphites.

Here I was, going about my business as I played blog photographer while the sun was shining brightly outside and giving us the first clear blue sky in a couple of weeks, when I came across another blog post idea. Within 10 minutes I had finished photographing for this post. One of my biggest weaknesses when it comes to makeup are highlighting products, and I tend to be really specific about what I'm looking for. I spend ages swatching them in store on every bare patch of skin and quickly omit those that are too sparkly or too golden when the light hits them. In the case of products that are sealed, I turn them every which way to see how the light catches them.

So, all in all, I spend a really long time picking and choosing my highlighters. The Manizer was the only one that I purchased online, as I didn't have access to one in person, so my choice was all based on online reviews. All of the highlighters I have mentioned below are of course cruelty-free, and none of them are owned by parent companies that test on animals or sold in China, as per my beliefs.

I was scrolling through Twitter for blog posts to read when more than once I came across tweets mentioning 'current beauty faves' and 'current obsessions'. That, of course, reminded me of all the new favourites I had picked up over the past few weeks and I could not resist writing up a post on all of the ones I've come to love.

I, like many others, have the unfortunate issue of possessing oily skin, even in the eye area. I, like many others, can barely wear eyeshadows without them melting off within the hour. I, like many others, have tried so many different types of eyeshadow primers in my quest for one product that works wonders.

So far I have tried FIVE primers, and so far, most of them have not met my expectations. I am going to go through them in the order of the cheapest to the most expensive. They are all cruelty-free, and, in some cases, vegan.

I recently met Cat Miranda, a soon-to-be blogger on Twitter. We quickly became fast friends, and rarely go a day without chatting with each other. It sucks that we live on opposite sides of the Earth, but where distance is concerned, the great conversations and good company more than makes up for it. We started out with her asking for some advice on how to start up a blog, and my knowing exactly how hard it was to start up a blog without any solid advice or guidance from a fellow blogger, I was all too happy to lend a hand.

The title of this post should be used for the previous one, especially because of visiting Wizarding World, but I thought it would be a bit weird if I went back and edited it. Should I? Until then, I'll leave this title as it is. I was meant to upload this last Friday night/Saturday morning, but as luck would have it, I picked up a cold on the flight back. During the second half of the flight, I was already trying to stifle my coughs, hoping that it was just the dry environment that was making my throat itch. I stopped writing this post when the Japanese woman sitting next to me engaged Sean and me in a conversation about Australia. I used this opportunity to brush up my Japanese a little bit, but I still have a very long way to go when it comes to speaking fluently.